Generation

Generation [EBD]

Gen. 2:4, "These are the generations," means the "history." 5:1, "The book of the generations," means a family register, or history of Adam. 37:2, "The generations of Jacob" = the history of Jacob and his descendants. 7:1, "In this generation" = in this age. Ps. 49:19, "The generation of his fathers" = the dwelling of his fathers, i.e., the grave. Ps. 73:15, "The generation of thy children" = the contemporary race. Isa. 53:8, "Who shall declare his generation?" = His manner of life who shall declare? or rather = His race, posterity, shall be so numerous that no one shall be able to declare it.

In Matt. 1:17, the word means a succession or series of persons from the same stock. Matt. 3:7, "Generation of vipers" = brood of vipers. 24:34, "This generation" = the persons then living contemporary with Christ. 1 Pet. 2:9, "A chosen generation" = a chosen people.

The Hebrews seem to have reckoned time by the generation. In the time of Abraham a generation was an hundred years, thus: Gen. 15:16, "In the fourth generation" = in four hundred years (comp. verse 13 and Ex. 12:40). In Deut. 1:35 and 2:14 a generation is a period of thirty-eight years.

GENERATION [SMITH]

In the long-lived patriarchal age a generation seems to have been computed at 100 years, (Genesis 15:16) comp. Genesis15:13 and Eccl 12:40 But subsequently the reckoning was the same which has been adopted by modern civilized nations, viz. from thirty to forty years (Job 42:16) (Generation is also used to signify the men of an age or time, as contemporaries, (Genesis 6:9; Isaiah 53:8) posterity , especially in legal formulae, (Leviticus 3:17) etc.; fathers, or ancestors. (Psalms 49:19)

GENERATION [ISBE]

GENERATION - jen-er-a'-shun (Latin generatio, from genero, "beget"):

(1) The translation (a) of dor, "circle," "generation," hence, "age," "period," "cycle": "many generations" (Dt 32:7); (b) the people of any particular period or those born about the same time: "Righteous before me in this generation" (Gen 7:1); "four generations" (Job 42:16); (c) the people of a particular class or sort, with some implied reference to hereditary quality; the wicked (Dt 32:5; Prov 30:11); the righteous (Ps 14:5; 112:2).

(2) toledhoth, "births," hence (a) an account of a man and his descendants: "The book of the generations of Adam" (Gen 5:1); (b) successive families: "The families of the sons of Noah, after their generations" (Gen 10:32); (c) genealogical divisions: "The children of Reuben .... their generations, by their families" (Nu 1:20); (d) figurative, of the origin and early history of created things: "The generations of the heavens and of the earth" (Gen 2:4).

(3) genea, "a begetting," "birth," "nativity," therefore (a) the successive members of a genealogy: "All the generations from Abraham unto David" (Mt 1:17); (b) a race, or class, distinguished by common characteristics, always (in the New Testament) bad: "Faithless and perverse generation" (Mt 17:17); (c) the people of a period: "This generation shall not pass away" (Lk 21:32); (d) an age (the average lifetime, 33 years): "Hid for (Greek "from the") ages and (from the) generations" (Col 1:26). The term is also by a figurative transference of thought applied to duration in eternity: "Unto all generations for ever and ever" (Eph 3:21) (Greek "all the generations of the age of the ages").

(4) genesis, "source," "origin": "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ" (Mt 1:1; the American Revised Version, margin "The genealogy of Jesus Christ").

(5) gennema, "offspring," "progeny"; figurative: "O generation of vipers" (Lk 3:7 the King James Version).

(6) genos, "stock," "race," in this case spiritual: "But ye are a chosen generation" (1 Pet 2:9; the American Standard Revised Version "an elect race").

Philip Wendell Crannell